Image from the TNT

After Fister's 3rd start of the season, the mainframe thought it saw something strange in his pitching.  

BABVA claimed him in the SSI AL-only league and gingerly deployed him this week -- against Justin, the guy I most owe a good keister-kicking.

Tuesday night against the Tigers, we saw it again in Fister's game -- this time, underlined and with an exclam.  We picked him up in the 20-team mixed league and he'll be starting for BABVA over bigger names until further notice.

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=== Distant Replay Dept. ===

Fister has done a lot of things right.  He pitches with major league poise and with major league intelligence.  He hasn't been able to miss bats, but he keeps the initiative anyway, and that's fun to watch.

I always thought I was Doug Fister's biggest fan, but notice the difference between saying these two things:

• Doug Fister will be an impact pitcher in the AL -- NAY
• Doug Fister will probably run a 100 ERA+, and is therefore infinitely superior to Olson, French, Snell, Rowland-Smith etc -- YEA

It is the latter that SSI preached, and SSI got in plenty 'nuff trouble just for that.  Remember the food fights over Fister's 7:1 control ratios in AAA, and whether they meant anything?  :- )

Point is:  SSI has hoped for (and projected) a 95, 100 ERA+ for Fister.  But!  With diamond-hard limits on his contribution.  ... He's been far short of Shander's 5.6 strikeout line for finesse pitchers, and coming into this year I wasn't even betting on him to finish the year in the rotation.

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=== PLATEAU LEAP? ===

In 2010, (young) Mariners catchers loathed Fister's 74 mph change-curve.  They called for it only 8%last year.  He did hang it a few times, and in 2010 it returned a horrible -2.3 runs / 100 result -- probably because of the catchers' mismanagement.

It was obvious from the word Go that veteran Miguel Olivo loved Fister's change curve.  In the first three games of this year, Olivo called for it fully 18% of the time, and it gave solid results -- from -2.3 runs to a reliable, break-even 0.0.

In Game 3, though, the yellow hammer looked like a feature pitch to Dr. D.  And Brooks confirmed:  21 pitches, 16 strikes (!) and the hammer gave Fister 6 of his 7 swinging strikes.  It was Fister's best pitch.  

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Now then, Tuesday in Game 4, Fister threw his change curve with AUTHORITY.  If I hadn't known better, I'd have thought I was watching Aaron Sele.

The results?  Read 'em and weep, Mr. Scioscia:

straight down, fully a foot more drop than vacuum and 18" more than his sinking fastball, and it was -15 mph from his heater.  They froze like popsicles every blinkin' time he threw it.  And he threw it a ton.

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